Wine bottle rack

ABSTRACT

A wine bottle rack made up of welded metal rods and adapted to be assembled and disassembled without resort to screw devices or other extraneous fastening means. A pair of end members extend in fore and aft vertical planes and lateral grid members engage the end members at the opposite side edges of the grid members by means of rigid hook formations on the grid members which engage over cross rods on the end members. The end members have pairs of vertical rod portions which provide locating and retaining guides for the hook formations of the grid members. The grid members and the end members are retained in assembled relationship by the weight of articles supported in the grid members.

nited States tent 1191 Notarius 1 July 29, 1975 [73] Assignee: PremierParty Goods, 1nc., Buffalo,

22 Filed: Apr. 1, 1974 21 Appl. No.: 456,559

Primary Examiner-Roy D. Frazier Assistant Examiner-Robert A. HaferAttorney, Agent, or FirmChristel & Bean [57] ABSTRACT A wine bottle rackmade up of welded metal rods and adapted to be assembled anddisassembled without resort to screw devices or other extraneousfastening [52] US. Cl 2 211/74; 211/177; 211/181 means. A pair of endmembers extend in fore and aft [51] Int. Cl. A47B 73/00; A47F 5/10vertical planes and lateral grid members engage the [58] Field of Search211/74, 177, 178, 181, end members at the Opposite Side edges of thegrid 211/182; 248/150 153; 220/19 members by means of rigid hookformations on the grid members which engage over cross rods on theReferences Cited end members. The end members have pairs of verticalUNITED STATES PATENTS rod portions which provide locating and retaining2,315,595 4 1943 Chappory 211/181 guides for the hook formations Of thegrid members- 3,003,644 10/1961 Hildebrand 211/74 Th grid members andthe end members are retained 3,007,708 11/1961 Ochs 211/181 in assembledrelationship by the weight of articles sup- 3,023,908 3/1962 Ramey t 1 11 21 [/74 ported in the grid members, 3,183,862 5/1965 Melvin t 211/1483,435,958 4/1969 Chesley 211/181 4 Claims, 5 a g g s \3 .4| 29 1. 1] & 1fii .l 511 1! I I i a 35 \j y e g1 34 ui i il \11 1' 1 1 29 ggl/ l WINEBOTTLE RACK BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION The present invention-relates toa r zick which is especially adapted to support wine bottles in adesired generally horizontal position butwhich' may beemployed forsupporting other articles. i

In the prior art the use of welded metal rod construction for wine racksand similar supporting devices is well known. In some of these prior artproposals the metal rods are fabricated and 'welded to form a fixedunitary rack structure but devices of this type are difficult to shipand to store and are frequently damaged in shipment. j I

Certain other prior art devices involv'e knock'down structures in whichthe end members and the lateral members are separate and are attached byscrew devices or other special separate attaching means. In' stillfurther examples of prior art wine rack structures the end members andthe lateral members are hinged so that they collapse generally indiamond fashion. Devices of this type require special attachments orsecuring devices for holding the wine rack in expanded operativecondition. i I I 9 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present inventionprovides a metal rod wine rack structure in which the two end membersand the several lateral members each form separate rigid welded entitieswhich may be packaged and shipped in a secure and compact fashion. Thelateral members comprise grids formed of vertical andhorizontal rodmembers welded at their intersections to form a checkerboard pattern ofwine bottle receiving and supporting openings. The horizontal metal rodsof the lateral members or certain of them have laterally extending anddownbent portions which hook over cross rods on the end members so thatthe device may be set up quickly and conveniently and without anyextraneous fastening devices.

The end members have vertically spaced rod portions welded thereto toform guides which accurately locate the lateral members with respect tofore and aft directions. The weight of wine bottles or the like in therack maintains the same against inadvertent disassembly when the rack isin use.

The lateral grid members comprise front and intermediate members whichsupport bottles at their under sides and a rear member which includesvertical rods which are generally central of the spaces formed by thelateral grid members so that the bottoms of the bottles stop against thevertical rods of the rear lateral grid member.

In a preferred form the cross rods of the end members slope rearwardlydownwardly so that the spaces in the intermediate grid member aresubstantially lower than the corresponding spaces of the front gridmember. Accordingly, wine bottles rest in such spaces with the bodies ofthe bottles resting on horizontal rods of the intermediate grid memberand the necks of the bottles resting on the horizontal rods of the frontgrid member. The relationship of the front and intermediate grid membersis further such that the bottoms of the bottles are inclined slightlydownwardly so that sedi ment tends to collect in the bottoms of thebottles as they rest in the wine rack.

vBRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspectiveview of one form of the wine rack of the present invention in assembledform, showing the right-hand end of the device;

FIG. is a right-hand end view of the right-hand end member of thepresent structure;

' FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the front lateral grid member;

FIG; 4 is a front-elevational view of the rear lateral grid member; and

FIG. 5 is a top plan view 'of the rear grid member shown in FIG. 4.

. DESCRIPTION or THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT In'the' embodimentillustrated in the drawings the wine rack comprises, essentially, fiveunitary subassemblies each sub-assembly comprising an integral unit ofrigidly welded rods. The five sub-assemblies comprisea left hand endmember (not shown), a-right hand end member 11, a front grid member 12,a rear grid member 13, and 'an intermediate grid member 14. b Referringparticularly to FIG. 2, the right hand end member designated generallyby the numeral 11 comprises front and rear upright metal tubes 16 and 17joined by inclined cross rods 18 through 21 which are welded to theinner sides of the uprights l6 and 17 at their ends. Three pairs ofvertical rods 23, 24 and 25 are welded to the exteriors of the crossrods 18 through 21 as shown in FIG. 2 and the rods of each pair arespaced to provide guides for assembling the front, rear and intermediategrid members respectively with the end membersQas will presentlyappear.In the illustrated embodiment a diagonal brace rod 27 is welded to theseveral cross members 18 through 21.

In the drawings FIG. 3 shows the front grid member 12 which comprises aseries of horizontal rods 29 and a series of vertical rods 30, allwelded to form the grid shown in FIG. 3. Certain of the: horizontal rods29 have lateral extensions which are bent down to form hooks 31. Inassembling the present device the hooks 31 engage over the cross rods 18through 21 of the end mem bers 10 and 11 and between the vertical rods23 of the end members to be guided and accurately located by suchvertical rods.

The intermediate grid member 14 is substantially the same as front gridmember 12 and its hook formations 31 likewise engage over cross rods 18through 21 of the end members and between the pairs of vertical rods 25of such end members. The rearward and downward inclination of the crossrods 18 through 21 is such that the bodies of wine bottles may rest onthe horizontal rods of intermediate grid member 14 with the necksthereof resting on the horizontal rods 29 of front grid member 12 withthe bottles slightly inclined so that their rear ends are loweredsufficiently to cause sediment in the wine to gravitate to the bottomportions of bottles.

The rear grid member 13 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 further rigidities theassembled structure and serves as a rear stop for bottles resting on thehorizontal rods of the front and intermediate grids 12 and 14. Rear grid13 comprises a series of vertical rods 33 and four horizontal front rods34 and four registering horizontal rods 35. The first and rearhorizontal rods are welded to the vertical rods to form a rigid reargrid structure and the rear horizontal rods 35 have downwardly bentlateral extensions designated 36 which engage across the cross rods 18through 21 and between the pair of vertical rods 24 of the end membersand ll, all as in the case of the front and intermediate grid members.

The vertical rods 33 of the rear grid member are staggered with respectto the vertical rods 30 of the front and intermediate grid members sothat they lie across the compartments formed by the rods of the frontand intermediate grid members and thus serve as rear stops for bottlesplaced in the compartments formed by the front and intermediate gridmembers.

From the foregoing it will be noted that the members may be stored andshipped in perfectly flat compact condition and for setting up requireonly placing the several hook formations of the grid members in assemblywith the end members without the use of any separate tools or fasteningdevices. The weight of bottles in the rack holds the grid memberssecurely down in assembled position against inadvertent disassembly.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention has been describedherein and shown in the accompanying drawings to illustrate theunderlying principles of the invention but it is to be understood thatnumerous modifications may be made without departing from the broadspirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. In a rack for wine bottles and the like, a pair of end members eachcomprising front and rear vertical posts and a plurality of verticallyspaced cross rods welded at their ends to said posts to form a unitaryend member, a plurality of laterally extending grid members engageableat their side edges with said end members, said grid members comprisinga front member, a rear member and an intermediate member, said memberseach comprising a vertical series of spaced horizontal rods and alateral series of vertical rods welded at the rod intersections to forma rigid grid arrangement, the rods of the front and intermediate membersforming spaces for receiving individual bottles, the vertical rods ofthe rear grid members being staggered with respect to the vertical rodsof the front and intermediate members whereby the bottoms of bottlesstop against said rear member vertical rods, certain of the horizontalrods of said grid members having laterally projecting downwardly openinghook formations formed integrally therewith for engagement over thecross rods of the end members, the vertical rods at the ends of saidgrid members being disposed inwardly of said hook formation at suchdistance that the hook formations and the end vertical rods fit over thecross rods to prevent lateral movement of the end members, and means onsaid end members comprising abutting surfaces at each side of each hookformation for preventing substantial movement of said hook formationsrelative to said end members in a fore and aft direction.

2. A rack according to claim 1 wherein said end member cross rods areinclined rearwardly downwardly whereby the horizontal rods of theintermediate grid members are disposed lower than the correspondinghorizontal rods of the front member.

3. A rack according to claim 1 wherein said last mentioned meanscomprises pairs of vertically extending spaced rods fixed to said crossmembers to define guideways for said hook formations to locate said gridmembers in accurately defined lateral planes spaced fore and aft betweensaid end members.

4. A rack according to claim 2 wherein each end member has pairs ofvertically extending spaced rods fixed to said cross members to defineguideways for said hook formations to locate said grid members inaccurately defined lateral planes spaced fore and aft between said endmembers.

1. In a rack for wine bottles and the like, a pair of end members eachcomprising front and rear vertical posts and a plurality of verticallyspaced cross rods welded at their ends to said posts to form a unitaryend member, a plurality of laterally extending grid members engageableat their side edges with said end members, said grid members comprisinga front member, a rear member and an intermediate member, said memberseach comprising a vertical series of spaced horizontal rods and alateral series of vertical rods welded at the rod intersections to forma rigid grid arrangement, the rods of the front and intermediate membersforming spaces for receiving individual bottles, the vertical rods ofthe rear grid members being staggered with respect to the vertical rodsof the front and intermediate members whereby the bottoms of bottlesstop against said rear member vertical rods, certain of the horizontalrods of said grid members having laterally projecting downwardly openinghook formations formed integrally therewith for engagement over thecross rods of the end members, the vertical rods at the ends of saidgrid members being disposed inwardly of said hook formation at suchdistance that the hook formations and the end vertical rods fit over thecross rods to prevent lateral movement of the end members, and means onsaid end members comprising abutting surfaces at each side of each hookformation for preventing substantial movement of said hook formationsrelative to said end members in a fore and aft direction.
 2. A rackaccording to claim 1 wherein said end member cross rods are inclinedrearwardly downwardly whereby the horizontal rods of the intermediategrid members are disposed lower than the corresponding horizontal rodsof the front member.
 3. A rack according to claim 1 wherein said lastmentioned means comprises pairs of vertically extending spaced rodsfixed to said cross members to define guideways for said hook formationsto locate said grid members in accurately defined lateral planes spacedfore and aft between said end members.
 4. A rack according to claim 2wherein each end member has pairs of vertically extending spaced rodsfixed to said cross members to define guideways for said hook formationsto locate said grid members in accurately defined lateral planes spacedfore and aft between said end members.